Psych Exam !

Psychology

scientific study of behavior and mind

* want scientific method to be use

Behavior

any overtly observable action at any level abstraction

Mind

any convert, observable phenomenon that relates the organism to the environment

* memory, perception, reasoning, fear

psychology subfields

* clinical
* developmental
* social
* physiological
* quantitative
* cognitive
* industrial/ organizational
* education/ school
* personality
* animal/ evolionary
* community
* health

physiological

neuroscience

quantitative

stations, data science, economics

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cognitive

memory, learning, cycle linguistics

industrial/ organizational

business, psychology factoring, in the workplace, what works well, how employees work well

educational/ school

testing, behavior problems, dealing with parents and teachers

personality

how you own personality is

Animal/ evolutionary

animal behavior

community

rec center, non profit, aim to make community.

health

how your psychological well being is related to your personal well being.

Wilhelm Wundy

founded first scientific laboratory

* study of perceptual and mental processes
* introspection and decomposing conscious experience

Geatalists: wetherimer, kohler

argues against the idea that experience could be decomposed

there are no pieces just whole experiences

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Psychoanalysis: sigmund freud

* unconscious influences on behavior
* emphasis on long-term effects of personal history
* pleasure/sec
* social convention

functionalism: William james

how do mental processes help us adapt

* focus on process, rather than the structure

behaviorism: john watson, B.F. skinner

* contingencies
* event,event
* behavior- reward (your more likely to do it again)

The cognitive revoultion: Noam chomsky, Herb simon, George Miller

Mind as computer, your mind can be stimulated as a computer

* information processing
* input
* software
* output

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Research Design

structure of how the study is conducted

Research tools

instruments, techniques used to collect data

Research Analysis

statistical techniques for extracting structure from data

Experiments

* always manipulation independent variables
* random assignment
* and have a control group

Independent variable

you manipulate this variable, you control this variable.

* example conditions that you put someone in, example changing the temperature in a room
* can do random assignment

dependent variable

* is the outcome variable, what you are measuring
* - you have caused something to happened in the manipulation of the independent variable which causes the dependent variable

Correlation studies

* are interest in relations
* measure more than 2 dependent measures
* collect subject variables; are a type of dependent variable (what you personally do)
* asses relationships

Statistical control

we are able to statically able to remove the effects of a subject variable

Observational studies

* measure 1 or more dependent measures
* exploratory
* no controls
* to see what is out there
* goal: identify phenomena

External validity

what does this experiment say about the real world

generalizability

can you take this result and use it to say something about something else

internal validity

whether you have done the experiment right. Is it executed in the right way

Confounds

failure of validity, unintended difference between your conditions

Experimenter Bias

the person conduction the experiment has an expectation on how the experiment is going to come out that interferes with the experiment

Participant Bias

when the participants come in with a bias they have exception

* placebo effects

single blind studies

subjects are unaware of what is to happen

double blind studies

both the experimenter and the participant do not know what condition the participant is in

Sampling

* who should be in your study
* members of whatever group you are studying

Population

group under study ( entire set)

Sample

Individuals who actually participate in your study

Random Sampling

every member of the population has an equal chance of being in your study

Random assignment

only used in experiments. How do you get the sample broken up into experimental conditions.

Stratification

When you know you have important subjects and important individuals

Low Tech Research tools

* surveys
* observation
* text analysis

NIRS: Near InfraRed Spectroscopy (NIRS)

* human tissue is translucent
* color of tissues causes signatures in light absorption

Eye Tracking

* gaze position shows what you are exactly looking at
* mid point of pupil pointed at some object on a 2d position.

Median

value with 50% below

Mode

most frequent value

Variance

Average squared deviation around the mean

Standard deviation

average absolute deviation around the mean.

Inferential Statistics

infer whether two sets of measurements are different

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if the manipulation does not work

* means should be similar but not identical
* defines “null hypothesis”

if the manipulation does work

* the means should be different
* defines the alternative hypothesis

Cell body

cells life support center

Dendrites

receives messages from other cells

axon

passes messages away form the cell body to neurons muscles or glands

Axon hillock

point of connection between the cell body and the axon

Myelin sheath

covers the axon of neurons and helps speed neural impulses

Terminal branches of axon

form junctions with other cells

Sensory (afferent neurons)

carry the incoming information from the sensory receptors to the CNS (brain and spinal cord)

Motor (efferent neurons)

carry the putting information from the CNS to the muscles and to the glands.

Projection

Link one area of the CNS to another

Interneurons

* local connections; connect the two neurons (mostly in the brain)

Glia

are responsible for making myelin wrap themselves around the axons, which insulate the current and speed propagation

Myelination

is the white matter in your brain

* 50%
* continues through later childhood

Neural Plasticity

need plasticity in the myelination as well as neuronal connections.

Sodium potassium pump

* creates a natural electrical gradient
* positive ions on the outside want to rush in and negative ions want to rush out
* the cell membrane keeps this from occurring
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Graded potentials

are generated at the dendrites and are conducted along the membrane to the axon hillock

Action potential: neurons firing

occurs when summated activity at the axon hillock raises the membrane potential past the threshold.

* electrical impluses travel from one neuron to another across a tiny junction the synapse.

The neural impulse

brief electrical charge travels down the axon

trailed by area in refraction.

Synapse

the small gap between successive neurons

* allows for simultaneous connections with multiple neurons

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Neurotransmitters

* chemical released from the sending neuron
* travel across the synapse and bind to receptor sites on the receiving neuron

Neuromodulators

indirection alter activity of other neurotransmitters

* after transmission either broken down by enzymes or taken back into presynaptic neuron.

Two major systems of the body communication

* endocrine system
* nervous system

Endocrine System

* glands release hormones into the bloodstream, which regulate aspects of growth reproduction, metabolism, and behavior.
* prepare the body of events
* fight or flight system
* development of secondary sex characteristics

Hormones and Behavior

* moods and arousal
* long-term development effects caused by hormone imbalances.
* involved in autonomic responses (involuntary)

Pituitary

* master
* growth hormone
* oxytocin- childbirth

Thyroid

* metabolism/ energy
* thyroxine - growth and development

Adrenal

* fight of flight
* stimulates internal organs
* epinephrine= flight
* norepinephrine = fight

Pancreas

* blood sugar and hunger
* insulin

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Gonas

* sexual development
* testosterone/ estrogen

Somatic Nervous system

* intentional action
* skeletal muscle movement
* sensory receptors

Autonomic nervous system

* involuntary organs
* involuntary muscles
* gets broken down into the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system,.

Parasympathetic nervous system

calming think parachute when jumping out of a plane (calm)

* activates digest system
* gallbladder
* think rest and digest

sympathetic nervous system

arousing

* your fight or flight response
* arouses

Spinal cord

* carries out reflexes, transmists messages between the brain and the body (PNS)
* dorsal: in
* ventral: out

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Bell magnesia Law

different segments each control sensations and movements of specific parts of the body

Clinical Observations

observations of people with known damage

physical injury

storke patients

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Broca’s Aphasia

a form of aphasia in which the person knows what they want to sya but is unable to produce the words to sentence

* really hard time to produce speech

Broca’s area

fluent speech production

damage: comprehension but limited production

typically in the left hemisphere

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Wernicke’s Aphasia

is another name for receptive aphasia which happens when the are of your brain that controls language called the wernicke area is damaged.

Wernicke’s Area

* comprehension of speech reading
* damage: poor comprehension incoherent speech
* typically in the left hemisphere of brain

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Non- invasive (imaging techinques)

* function magentic resonace imgaing (Fmri)
* hemoglobin (ocyegn levels in the brina)
* \

the brain

* forebrain
* midbrain
* hindbrain

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The hind brain

in charge of vital operaitons

Medulla and Reticular formation

* vital involuntary functions
* sleep and arousal, respiration, cardiovascular function digestion, attentional filter

Cerebellum

* think of ballerina, movements and balance

pons

bridge lower and higher areas

relay

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the midbrain

* communications
* relay points for a variety of sensory inputs
* oculomotor never and trochlear nucleus

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tectum

vision and hearing orientation

tegmentum

movement and arousal

homeostasis